HORACE  MANN’S  COUNTRY  SCHOOL. 


The  country  school  as  it  existed  in  the  thought  of  Horace  Mann  had 
nothing  in  common  with  the  college  or  the  university.  In  his  mind 
the  education  of  the  child  of  the  humblest  laborer  in  the  commonwealth 
was  of  as  much  consequence  as  that  of  the  child  born  to  an  inherit- 
ance of  millions.  The  act  defining  his  duties,  after  enumerating  cer- 
tain methods  of  work,  declares  the  end  to  be,  ‘ ‘that  the  children  de- 
pending on  the  common  schools  for  instruction  may  have  the  best 
education  which  those  schools  can  be  made  to  impart.”  In  his  time, 
when  people  talked  of  the  common  schools,  they^afl  m mind  the 

' * *(t.  * ' V 

country  school,  the  little  red  school  house  of  which  Whittier  wrote: 

“Still  sits  the  school  house  by  the  road, 

A ragged  beggar  sunning: 

Around  it  still  the  sumachs  grow, 

And  blackberry  vines  are  running.” 

The  entire  school  nomenclature  of  the  present  day  is  a new  inven- 
tion, which  would  have  been  senseless  jargon  in  the  ears  of  those 
who  lived  in  the  times  of  Horace  Mann.  Of  state  universities,  of 
agricultural  colleges,  of  secondary  schools,  of  manual  training,  of 
university  extension,  he  had  no  occasion  to  learn,  and  so  was  left 
free  to  concentrate  the  powers  of  his  mind  upon  his  work  in  behalf 
of  the  common  district  school.  He  recognized  the  apathy,  the  abso- 
lute indifference  of  the  people,  as  a great  evil.  In  order  to  remedy 
this  he  scattered  circulars  and  letters  everywhere;  he  enlisted  the 
prominent  men  of  the  commonwealth;  he  gathered  information  from 
every  possible  source  and  spread  it  broadcast  among  the  people. 
But  the  most  powerful  means  which  he  used  was  his  personal  pres- 
ence and  his  addresses.  He  went  from  village  to  village  and  from 
hamlet  to  hamlet,  preaching  everywhere  to  the  common  people  the 
saving  gospel  of  education  ; and  the  common  people  heard  him  gladly. 


2 


HORACE  MANN’S  COUNTRY  SCHOOL. 


His  words  came  to  them  like  water  to  the  thirsty  soul,  and  like  bread 
to  the  hungry. 

Secondary  schools,  high  schools,  city  supervision,  manual  training, 
have  usurped  nearly  the  entire  educational  field,  while  the  schools  in 
which  the  children  of  the  farm  laborer,  the  miner,  the  rural  commu- 
nity, must  receive  at  best  a limited  education,  sit  in  the  valley  of  the 
shadow  of  ignorance  waiting  for  their  redemption.  The  country 
schools  in  ever}”  state  need  an  educational  regeneration;  a fresh 
baptism  into  the  spirit  of  Horace  Mann. 

It  is  to  be  noted  here  that  the  subjects  of  his  lectures  were  cal- 
culated to  enlist  the  sympathies  of  his  audience.  They  appealed 
to  the  common  heart  of  the  populace.  There  is  danger  that  as  a 
profession  we  may  yet  become  too  professional/  Psychology,  peda- 
gogy,  philosophy,  scientific  teaching,  are  all  well  enough  when  we  are 
debating  among  ourselves;  but  if  we  expect  to  interest  and  instruct 
the  people  we  must  talk  common  sense.  When  he  said:  “The 
mobs,  the  riots,  the  burnings,  the  lynchings,  perpetrated  by  the  men 
of  the  present  day  are  perpetrated  because  of  their  vicious  or  defec- 
tive education  when  children;”  and  again  when  he  said,  “If  we  per- 
mit the  vulture’s  eggs  to  be  incubated  and  hatched,  it  will  then  be 
too  late  to  take  care  of  the  lambs,  ” he  was  lecturing  upon  ‘ ‘Means  and 
Objects  of  Common  School  Education.”  He  once  used  these  words: 
“If  republican  institutions  give  greater  scope  and  impulse  to  the 
lower  order  of  faculties  belonging  to  the  human  mind,  then  they  must 
give  also  more  authoritative  control  and  more  skillful  guidance  to  the 
higher  ones.  If  they  multiply  temptations  they  must  fortify  against 
them.  If  they  quicken  the  activity  and  enlarge  the  sphere  of  the  ap- 
petites and  passions,  they  must  at  least  in  an  equal  ratio  establish  the 
authority  and  extend  the  jurisdiction  of  reason  and  conscience.  ” He 
was  talking  to  the  people  concerning  the  “Necessity  of  Education  in 
a Republican  Government.  ” 

In  his  lecture,  “What  Grod  does  and  what  He  leaves  for  man  to 
do  m the  work  of  Education,”  he  combines  more  pure  pedagogy  than 
is  sometimes  contained  in  an  entire  volume  which  is  put  into  the 
teacher’s  hand  to  study.  The  work  of  the  creature  must  apply  and 
supplement  the  work  of  the  Creator . 


HORACE  MANN’S  COUNTRY  SCHOOL. 


3 


“Surely,”  he  says,  speaking  of  the  training  of  children,  “in  no 
other  department  of  life  is  knowledge  so  indispensable;  surely  in  no 
other  is  it  so  little  sought  for.  In  no  other  navigation  is  there  such 
danger  of  wreck;  in  no  other  is  there  such  blind  pilotage.”  He  was 
speaking  to  a promiscuous  audience,  not  to  one  composed  of  teachers 
alone. 

I have  dwelt  at  some  little  length  upon  this  point,  because  I know 
that  if  we  expect  to  rescue  the  common  district  school  from  its  present 
low  estate  we  must  catch  the  spirit  of  Horace  Mann,  and  talk  to  the 
people  in  plain,  unmistakable  language  concerning  the  duty  as  well 
as  the  necessity  of  providing  for  every  child  in  the  state  the  best 
education  possible,  at  the  public  expense.  Ministers  have  lately 
discovered  that  if  they  wish  to  convert  sinners  they  must  go  where 
sinners  are.  If  we  ever  reach  the  people  to  convert  them  to  our 
way  of  thinking,  educationally,  we  must  go  where  the  people  can 
hear  us.  We  must  bring  common  truths  home  to  the  conscience  of 
the  people.  We  have  no  need  of  a Moses  to  lead  us  a tedious  jour- 
ney of  forty  years  through  the  wilderness,  but  we  do  need  a Joshua 
who  can  stand  by  the  river,  even  when  it  fills  all  its  banks,  and  bid 
the  priests  wrho  bear  the  ark  of  popular  education  go  forward  and 
stand  in  the  midst  of  the  stream,  that  the  people  may  pass  over  dry- 
shod. 

It  is  a most  serious  question  which  confronts  us  in  many  locali- 
ties : what  can  we  do  more  than  we  are  doing  to  arouse  an  intelligent 
enthusiasm  in  behalf  of  better  schools?  We  are  having  fair  success 
in  many  cities,  although  even  there  many  ignorant  and  unworthy 
men  are  elected  to  the  board  of  education,  often  through  party 
politics.  But  in  many  country  districts  in  every  state  where  popu- 
lation is  scarce  and  school  houses  far  apart,  apathy,  ignorance  and 
indifference  brood  like  a thick  cloud  over  the  entire  communit}^ 
When  national  and  state  associations  are  busy  with  the  mint,  the 
anise  and  the  cumin,  who  is  there  left  to  attend  to  the  weightier 
matters  of  the  law?  There  are  two  questions  which  claim  the  at- 
tention of  the  public  just  now.  The  one  is  how  to  obtain  better  re- 
sults from  the  work  done  in  the  elementary  schools  in  our  towns  and 
villages;  the  other  is  how  to  raise  the  character  of  the  instruction 


4 


HORACE  MANN’S  COUNTRY  SCHOOL. 


given  in  the  common  country  school.  The  Committee  of  Ten  which 
can  solve  these  questions  will  build  for  themselves  a monument  more 
enduring  than  brass.  These  are  far  above  all  questions  concerning 
secondary  or  collegiate  education. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  the  importance  which  Horace  Mann  at- 
tached to  the  rudimentsl  branches.  He  says  of  the  normal  school 
then  just  started  at  Barre:  “There  are  fifty  students  in  attendance, 
which  number  might  have  been  doubled  if  the  instructors  would  have 
consented  to  carry  them  forward  into  algebra  and  chemistry  and  as- 
tronomy and  geometry,  instead  of  subjecting  them  to  a thorough  re- 
view of  common  school  studies.”  He  evidently  preferred  for  the 
district  school  that  a teacher  should  be  thoroughly  prepared  in  a few 
important  branches,  rather  than  have  a superficial  omniscience  gained 
by  a cursory  study  of  every  known  branch  of  knowledge.  Thor- 
oughness in  preparation  induces  thoroughness  in  work } a superficial 
preparation  renders  thoroughness  in  instruction  impossible. 

Horace  Mann’s  teacher  for  the  district  school  must  possess  apt- 
ness to  teach,  as  well  as  knowledge,  which  he  says  embraces  a 
knowledge  of  methods  and  processes.  He  adds:  “He  who  is  apt 
to  teach  is  acquainted  not  only  with  common  methods  for  common 
minds,  but  with  peculiar  methods  for  pupils  of  peculiar  dispositions 
and  temperaments.  ” The  best  normal  schools  are  not  always  those 
with  the  finest  buildings,  or  the  most  extended  curriculum,  but  those 
in  which  the  students  study  and  apply  “the  principles  of  all 
methods,”  so  that  they  may  vary  their  modes  of  instruction  to  suit 
the  individual  wants  of  the  child. 

The  era  of  individuality  is  at  our  doors,  and  the  teacher  of  the 
future  will  be  compelled  to  deal  with  the  pupils  as  his  wants  of  each 
one  may  require.  Rules,  regulations  and  systems  must  give  way, 
and  the  individual  child  must  be  enthroned  as  the  one  supreme  object 
for  whose  welfare  the  school  was  established.  This  was  Horace 
Mann’s  idea.  It  can  best  be  carried  out  in  the  country  school,  but 
it  can  nowhere  be  successfully  done  unless  the  teacher  possesses  and 
is  governed  by  the  teaching  spirit.  The  teacher  in  the  country 
school,  isolated  in  her  work,  with  but  little  advice  or  supervision, 


HORACE  MANN’S  COUNTRY  SCHOOL. 


O 


finds  here  her  only  solace;  her  only  refuge  from  the  dull  monotony 
of  hearing  lessons  and  keeping  order. 

But  Horace  Mann’s  teacher  must  also  possess  the  power  to  govern 
and  control  her  school,  not  necessarily  through  fear,  for  love  is  far 
better  and  more  enduring.  Yet  when  love  fails,  force  must  be  called 
in,  for  disobedience  is  the  open  gate  to  all  evil  influences.  He,  how- 
ever, expresses  a pungent  truth  when  he  says,  ‘‘Children  coming' 
from  homes  where  they  have  always  been  accustomed  to  love  and 
sympathy,  should  expect  to  find  love  and  sympathy  in  the  school; 
and  those  coming  from  homes  in  which  there  is  no  love  and  no  sym- 
pathy, above  all  others,  ought  to  find  these  in  their  teachers.” 

As  Horace  Mann  desired  that  teachers  for  the  district  schools 
should  be  prepared  in  the  common  branches,  he  did  not  hesitate  to 
deprecate  the  tendency,  even  in  his  day,  to  increase  the  number  of 

branches  in  the  common  schools!  What  would  he  have  said  could 

/ 

he  have  inspected  the  course  of  study  in  some  of  our  high  schools? 
Said  an  earnest  teacher  the  other  day,  “We  have  so  many  things  to 
do,  so  much  instruction  to  give  in  different  branches,  that  we  have 
no  time  to  build  character.”  And  yet  character  endures,  wheit 
knowledge  fails.  “If  there  be  tongues  they  shall  cease;  if  there  be 
knowledge  it  shall  vanish  away.  Now  abideth  these  three,  faith, 
hope,  love.” 

Horace  Mann’s  idea  was  very  far  from  confining  instruction  in  the 
country  schools  to  the  three  R’s.  Whatever  has  a tendency  to  make 
the  boy  more  useful  on  the  farm,  or  to  make  the  life  of  the  farm 
more  attractive  to  him ; whatever  will  make  the  daughter  more  use- 
ful in  the  home,  or  make  the  home  a place  of  supreme  pleasure  to 
her,  may  legitimately  be  taught  in  the  district  school.  The  subjects 
taught  in  the  country  school  ought  to  bear  a close  relation  to  country 
life.  The  great  storehouse  of  nature  opens  her  doors  and  displays 
her  treasures  to  the  rural  school.  Seedtime  and  harvest,  bud  and 
flower,  blossom  and  fruit,  the  care  of  animals,  singing  birds  and  run- 
ning streams,  can  be  made  the  source  of  lessons  useful  as  well  as 
pleasant  to  the  children.  The  country  school  is  shorn  of  half  its 
usefulness  because  the  teacher  is  not  able  to  rise  to  the  height  of  her 
opportunities.  And  what  a wonderful  opportunity  she  has  to  teach 


6 


HORACE  MANN’S  COUNTRY  SCHOOL. 


the  pupil  to  “translate  forms  of  beauty  into  thought,  and  thought  into 
words.” 

To  make  a system  of  education  effective,  it  must  be  in  accord  with 
its  environments.  The  countiy  school  should  be  thoroughly  coun- 
trified ; it  should  never  put  on  metropolitan  airs.  It  is  not  desirable 
that  the  country  school  should  keep  equal  pace  with  the  city  system 
in  the  character  and  kind  of  studies  introduced  in  it;  but  especially 
in  nature  studies,  and  in  elementary  science  as  bearing  upon  agricul- 
ture and  rural  life,  the  curriculum  of  the  country  school  should  be 
greatly  enlarged.  What  the  city  school  ought  to  do  in  fitting  boys 
for  the  office  or  for  professions,  the  country  school  must  do  in  fitting 
boys  and  girls  for  the  farm.  Just  as  soon  as  the  farmers  in  the  ag- 
ricultural sections  of  the  land  find  that  the  school  is  making  the  boys 
and  girls  more  useful  on  the  farm,  more  intelligent  and  more  con- 
tented to  remain  at  home,  they  will  value  it  for  its  usefulness  and 
rally  to  its  support. 

In  an  article  in  the  Common  School  Journal , then,  in  1840,  edited 
by  Horace  Mann,  the  writer,  after  enumerating  a long  list  of  eminent 
men,  says  of  them : * ‘All  common  school  men,  some  scarcely  that, 

but  yet  all  educated  man,  because  they  were  made  alive.”  The 

* 

school,  whether  it  be  in  the  city  or  country,  which  .does  not  do  this 
for  the  pupils  is  failing  of  its  purposes.  We  have  lost  sight,  to  some 
extent,  of  the  purposes  of  school  education  and  possibly  we  may 
have  to  go  back  to  the  country  school  of  Horace  Mann  in  order  to 
get  our  bearings  again. 

I do  not  say  we  do  not,  but  I do  saj7  we  ought  to  turn  out  of  our 
common  schools  reasonable,  thinking,  live  men  and  women,  anxious 
to  be  of  service  to  mankind,  eager  for  knowledge,  with  a quickened 
conscience,  with  the  seeds  of  growth  planted  so  deep  that  neither 
drought  nor  frost  can  reach  them ; growing  year  by  year  like  the 
young  sapling  of  the  forest  which  does  not  reach  its  maturity  until 
it  has  been  nourished  by  the  sunshine  of  a hundred  summers,  and 
has  breasted  the  storms  and  winds  of  a hundred  winters.  He  i& 
educated,  then,  “Who  thinks  most,  feels  the  noblest,  acts  the  best.  ” 

But  where  are  we  to  get  our  teachers  fitted  for  this  work?  This 
is  true,  that  no  state  in  the  Union  is  so  thoroughly  equipped  with 


HORACE  MANN’S  COUNTRY  SCHOOL. 


7 


normal  schools  as  to  be  able  to  give  all  her  teachers  a professional 
training.  This  is  also  true,  that  that  normal  school  takes  apparently 
highest  rank  which  approaches  nearest  to  being  a well  equipped  col- 
lege. I do  not  object  to  this,  and  yet  but  few  of  the  graduates  of 
these  schools  will  find  their  work  permanently  in  the  country.  The 
state  must  bring  its  normal  training  close  to  the  farmer’s  door. 

0 the  pitiless,  merciless,  barbarous  experimenting  wThich  is  being 
practiced  upon  thousands  of  American  children  in  the  schoolrooms! 
The  blind  teaching  them  to  see ; the  dumb  teaching  them  to  talk ; 
the  lame  and  the  halt  teaching  them  the  grace  of  motion.  It  is  a 
sin  which  cries  to  heaven.  Horace  Mann  tells  this  story.  A by- 
stander after  witnessing  a wonderful  operation  upon  the  eyes  per- 
formed by  the  most  skillful  oculist  in  London,  asked  him,  “How  in 
the  world  did  you  learn  to  do  it?”  He  replied,  “By  practice,  but  I 
spoilt  a bushel  basketful  of  eyes  in  learning  how.” 

The  state  should  inaugurate  a series  of  normal  schools,  one  in  each 
county,  or  at  least  in  each  congressional  district,  with  a curriculum 
confined  almost  exclusively  to  elementary  branches,  the  course  to  be 
completed  in  two  years,  and  in  charge  of  the  best  instructors  whom 
money  can  get.  Then  we  may  look  for  the  dawn  of  the  educational 
miilenium;  the  day  when  the  doors  of  the  public  school  will  be 
locked  against  every  candidate  who  has  not  had  some  special  pre- 
paration for  her  work.  Then  the  seedtime  shall  not  fail,  and  thou- 
sands of  happy  children  shall  yearly  celebrate  the  harvest  home  of 
knowledge. 

There  are  but  two  other  points  to  be  touched  upon.  Long 
and  earnestly  did  Horace  Mann  labor  to  reform  the  architecture 
of  the  country  school  house.  From  his  day  to  this  there  have 
been  spurts,  spasms  of  reform,  but  nothing  lasting;  there  never  will 
be  suitable  buildings,  built  with  regard  to  health,  comfort  and  con- 
venience, in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  sanitary  science,  and  of 
civilized  decency,  until  the  state  exerts  its  authority  and  compels  it 
as  a prerequisite  of  obtaining  a share  of  the  public  funds.  It  will 
take  years  to  reach  this  conclusion,  but  the  agitation  should  begin 
now  and  bear  with  it  the  active  influence  and  co-operation  of  this  Na- 
tional Educational  Association. 


8 


HORACE  MANN’S  COUNTRY  SCHOOL. 


Finally,  the  district  school  house  must  be  the  rallying  point  for 
every  influence  which  tends  to  elevate  or  benefit  mankind.  Within  its 
walls  should  be  kept  the  district  library;  the  museum  of  specimens 
gathered  and  labeled  by  the  children;  the  herbarium  of  flowers  and 
leaves  which  the  children  have  gathered  on  the  prairies  or  the  hills. 
Here  may  be  held  the  country  lyceum,  the  debating  society,  the 
singing  school.  No  matter  if  religious  meetings  and  Sunday  schools 
are  held  there,  provided  the  religious  conscience  can  be  so  elevated  that 
the  worshipers  will  not  desecrate  the  room  by  tobacco,  nor  purloin 
the  books  of  the  pupils.  Here  may  be  held  historical  or  scientific 
lectures  for  the  benefit  of  both  parents  and  pupils.  The  surround- 
ings should  be  sightly  and  attractive.  Trees  and  flowers  and  shrubs 
should  adorn  the  grounds,  which  should  be  scrupulously  cared  for. 
In  short,  the  district  school  house  and  the  grounds  should  have  such 
a hold  upon  the  community  that  they  would  be  the  last  places  which 
they  would  permit  to  be  desecrated  by  the  vandal  or  the  tramp. 
This  would  be  the  district  school  as  Horace  Mann  would  have  it. 


EXCERPTS  FROM  HORACE  MANN. 


Libraries. — How  can  this  flood  of  pernicious  reading  be  stayed?  It 
must  be  done,  if  done  at  all — in  the  expressive  language  of  Dr.  Chalmers 
— '‘by  the  expulsive  power  of.  a new  affection.”  A purer  current  of 
thought  at  the  fountain  can  alone  wash  the  channels  clean.  For  this  pur- 
pose I know  of  no  plan,  as  yet  conceived  by  philanthropy,  which  promises 
to  be  so  comprehensive  and  efficacious  as  the  establishment  of  good  libra- 
ries in  all  our  school  districts,  open  respectively  to  a'l  the  children  in  the 
state,  and  within  half  an  hour’s  walk  of  any  spot  upon  its  surface. 

Wanted  Men. — No  doubt  a college-boy  will  learn  more  Greek  and  Latin 
if  it  is  generally  understood  that  college  honors  are  to  be  mainly  awarded 
for  proficiency  in  those  languages;  but  what  care  we  though  a “man  can 
speak  seven  languages,  or  dreams  in  Hebrew  or  Sanscrit,  because  of  their 
familiarity,  if  he  has  never  learned  the  language  of  sympathy  for  human 
suffering,  and  is  deaf  when  the  voice  of  truth  and  duty  utters  their  holy 
mandates?  We  want  men  who  feel  a sentiment,  a consciousness  of 
brotherhood  for  the  whole  human  race.  We  want  men  who  will  instruct 
the  ignorant,  not  delude  them,  who  will  succor  the  weak,  not  prey  upon 
them.  We  want  men  who  will  fly  to  the  moral  breach  when  the  waters 
of  desolation  are  pouring  in,  and  who  will  stand  there,  and  if  need  be,  die 
there,  applause  or  no  applause. 

Free  Schools. — In  a social  and  political  sense,  it  is  a free  school  sys- 
tem. It  knows  no  distinction  of  rich  and  poor,  of  bond  and  free,  or  be- 
tween those,  who,  in  the  imperfect  light  of  this  world,  are  seeking, 
through  different  avenues,  to  reach  the  gate  of  heaven.  Without  money 
and  without  price,  it  throws  open  its  doors,  and  spreads  the  table  of  its 
bounty  for  all  the  children  of  the  state.  Like  the  sun,  it  shines  not  only 
upon  the  good,  but  upon  the  evil,  that  they  may  become  good;  and.  like 
the  rain,  its  blessings  descend  not  only  upon  the  just,  but  upon  the  unjust, 
that  their  injustice  may  depart  from  them,  and  be  known  no  more. 

Deeds. — Deeds  survive  the  doers.  In  the  highest  and  most  philosophic 
sense,  the  asserted  brevity  of  human  life  is  a fiction.  The  act  remains, 
though  the  hand  that  wrought  it  may  have  perished.  And  when  our 
spirits  shall  have  gone  to  their  account,  and  the  dust  of  our  bodies  shall 
be' blown  about  by  the  winds,  or  mingled  with  the  waves,  the  force  which 
our  life  shjill  have  impressed  upon  the  machinery  of  things  will  continue 
its  momentum,  and  work  out  its  destiny  upon  the  character  and  happiness 
of  our  descendants. 


